Indian sports activities information wrap, December 21

TENNIS

Third seed Ankita Raina beat Clara Vlasselaer of Belgium 7-6(3), 6-1 within the first spherical of the $25,000 ITF girls’s tennis event on the Ganesh Naik Complicated on Wednesday.

Within the pre-quarterfinals, Ankita will play Japanese qualifier Haine Ogata, who beat wild card entrant Vaishnavi Adkar 6-4, 6-4.

Rutuja Bhosale and Shrivalli Bhamidipaty have been the opposite Indian gamers to progress into the second spherical.

Rutuja beat qualifier Farhat Aleen Qamar for the lack of three video games, whereas Shrivalli didn't drop a sport within the first set after which Riya Bhatia retired owing to an harm.

Shrivalli will problem Priska Nugroho of Indonesia who beat seventh seed Valeriya Srakhova in three units.

The outcomes:

Singles (first spherical): Dalila Jakupovic (Slo) bt Humera Baharmus 6-1, 6-1; Rutuja Bhosale bt Farhat Aleen Qamar 6-2, 6-1; Valeria Savinykh bt Jennifer Luikham 6-3, 7-5; Ankita Riana bt Clara Vlasselaer (Bel0 7-6(3), 6-1; Haine Ogata (Jpn) bt Vaishnavi Adkar 6-4, 6-4; Ekaterina Yashina bt Weonika Baszak (Pol) 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-3; Priska Nugroho bt Valeriya Strakhova (Ukr) 3-6, 6-3, 7-5; Shrivalli Bhamidipaty bt Riya Bhatia 6-0 (retired); Anastasia Kulikova (Fin) bt Ines Murta (Por) 7-6(6), 3-6, 6-3.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Ankita Raina & Prarthana Thombare bt Humera Baharmus & Ksenia Laskutova 6-1, 6-0; Haine Ogata (Jpn) & Saumya Vig bt Pooja Ingale & Ishwari Matere 6-4, 3-6, [10-7]; Yvonne Cavalle-Reimers (Esp) & Teja Tirunelveli (USA) bt Smriti Bhasin & Sai Samhitha 6-2, 7-5; Ines Murta (Por) & Vasanti Shinde bt Farhat Aleen Qamar & Akanksha Nitture 6-0, 6-0; Sharmada Balu & Sowjanya Bavisetti bt Soha Sadiq & Sahaja Yamalapalli 6-4, 7-6(9); Shrivalli Bhamidipaty & Vaidehi Chaudhari bt Sravya Shivani & Jennifer Luikham 4-6, 6-4, [10-8]; Dalila Jakupovic (Slo) & Diana Marcinkevica (Lat) bt Anastasia Kovaleva & Daria Kudashova 6-1, 5-7, [10-7].

-Kamesh Srinivasan

GOLF

Kapil Kumar in motion. | Picture Credit score: Particular Association

Delhi’s  Kapil Kumar shot a superb nine-under 63 to take the spherical one lead on the Rs. 3 crore TATA Metal Tour Championship 2022, the TATA Metal PGTI’s season-ending occasion being performed on the Beldih and Golmuri Golf Programs in Jamshedpur.

Shiv Kapur, a winner of six worldwide titles, struck a 64 to be positioned second. Shiv’s spherical featured an albatross on the par-5 ninth gap the place he holed his second shot from 240 yards.

Hyderabad’s Mohd Azhar occupied third place at 65.

The primary spherical of the event noticed one half of the sector play their first 9 holes at Golmuri Golf Course and second 9 at Beldih Golf Course whereas the opposite half of the sector performed Beldih first adopted by Golmuri. This format can even be adopted for the subsequent three rounds of the event in Jamshedpur with the par for the spherical being 72.

Kapil Kumar, presently 21 ^st within the TATA Metal PGTI Rankings with three top-10s to his credit score within the season, fired it near the outlet at Golmuri to choose up three of his 4 birdies on the front-nine from a spread of six ft. Kapil, a runner-up in Pune this yr, then sank longer putts on the newly-relaid Beldih to choose up three extra birdies. He additionally made a six-feet eagle conversion on the 12 ^th.

Kapil stated, “I acquired into a great zone after my second birdie of the day on the fourth gap. I used to be feeling good about my placing at that stage. On the eighth tee, I set myself a goal to make birdies on the eighth and ninth in order that I can shut the front-nine at four-under after which add one other 4 to 5 birdies on the back-nine to finish up with one thing round eight or nine-under.

“Even after good begins, I are likely to lose momentum within the third and fourth rounds. That's one thing I'll look to enhance on this week.”

Shiv Kapur, who has been recovering from a rib harm and thus performed his first aggressive spherical in over two months, was off to a brisk begin with two birdies and an albatross on the ninth at Golmuri. Kapur then added three extra birdies at Beldih by sinking a 15-footer on the 11 ^th and touchdown his strategy inside inches of the flag on the 15 ^th.

Shiv stated, “I shocked myself at the moment with my first aggressive spherical in fairly a while and my solely purpose is to get by the 4 rounds with out a lot ache. I had a gradual begin. Then on the ninth gap I had an excellent yardage, I had 240 yards to the flag. The 5-wood took off on an excellent line and I didn't understand until I used to be midway as much as the inexperienced that I had holed it. It was an ideal shot that arrange the remainder of the day for me.

“I’m clearly rusty as I haven’t had loads of time to apply. For me proper now my golf health isn’t at its finest however total I’m feeling good.

“I just like the modifications on the Beldih Golf Course. The bunkering is excellent because it makes you suppose off the tee as earlier it was a bit too beneficiant off the tee. With the brand new greens in place, the pictures off the tough are usually not holding and that requires lot of precision.”

TATA Metal PGTI Rankings chief Manu Gandas shot a 66 to be tied fourth together with Udayan Mane and Chikkarangappa.

Among the many outstanding names, Jyoti Randhawa (67) was tied seventh, SSP Chawrasia (69) was tied 16 ^th, Ajeetesh Sandhu (70), presently third within the PGTI Order of Advantage, was tied 22 ^nd, Yuvraj Singh Sandhu (72), presently second within the PGTI Order of Advantage, was tied 36 ^th, Gaganjeet Bhullar (76) was tied 69 ^th and Jeev Milkha Singh (79) was tied 73 ^rd.

The 2 Jamshedpur-based professionals, Karan Taunk (73) and Kurush Heerjee (75) have been positioned tied 49 ^th and tied 66 ^th respectively.

With a successful purse of Rs. 45 lakh at stake, the biggest-ever on the PGTI, it’s going to be an in depth contest for the TATA Metal PGTI Rankings title between the highest three on the Order of Advantage – Manu Gandas, Yuvraj Singh Sandhu and Ajeetesh Sandhu.

-Group Sportstar